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Gators' offense struggles in limited final spring practice

Richard Hamm Athens Banner-Herald Black Team cornerback Damian Swann (left) breaks up a pass intended for the Red Team's Rantavious Wooten during Georgia's spring football game on Saturday in Athens.

GAINESVILLE — The format changed, but Florida’s offense looked the same as last season.

The Gators struggled to complete passes of any sizable length in their final practice of spring drills.

Florida coach Will Muschamp decided to scrap the usual game format with the offensive line down to six healthy players. UF broke the two-hour practice on Saturday at Florida Field into 15 separate sessions, with seven scrimmage periods scattered throughout, in front of a relatively sparse crowd. No score or official stats were kept.

There were two touchdowns in the scrimmage portions, both by running backs. Walk-on Mark Herndon scored on a 4-yard run, and true freshman Kelvin Taylor found the end zone on a 7-yard run. Taylor is the son of former Jaguars and Florida standout running back Fred Taylor. He rushed for 59 yards on 11 carries.

“It’s the best we could do, given the circumstances,” Muschamp said. “Obviously, we’ve had some injuries along the offensive line. Would I have liked to have lined up and had a live game and had 120 snaps? Sure, that would have been good. But with that being said, I thought it was a very productive day.”

Returning starting quarterback Jeff Driskel completed 9-of-20 passes for 70 yards. He didn’t throw a touchdown or commit a turnover. Five of Driskel’s nine completions went for four yards or shorter.

Florida finished 114th in the country in passing offense last season (146.3 yards per game) while going 11-2.

“We have a strong comfort level in Jeff and his ability to lead our football team,” Muschamp said. “Obviously, he has a lot of snaps under his belt and a lot of wins under his belt.”

Muschamp attributed the lack of passing production to a receiving corps that was also dealing with injuries and UF’s strength in the secondary. Florida’s defense focused on not giving up any big plays in the passing game.

“That’s our goal,” Florida defensive back Jaylen Watkins said. “To go out there every game, every practice and defend the deep ball. I feel like we do that better than anyone in the country. Coming out here today, that was our main goal, and we got it accomplished. We knew they were going to do some double moves to get the crowd kind of pumped up. We didn’t let that happen.”

The format change did make it difficult for the offense to try and establish any rhythm. The Gators would only run a maximum of 12 plays at a time.

“It’s tough with the linemen,” Driskel said. “We only had six healthy ones today. They’ve been doing what they’ve can all spring long and we’re proud of them for competing like they have.”

Florida opens the 2013 season against Toledo on Aug. 31 in Gainesville.